10 Strangest Psychological Disorders You’ve Never Heard of

1. Landau-Kleffner syndrome

Landau-Kleffner syndrome is a psychological disorder that most commonly affects children between ages of five to seven years. Typically, it is expressed as a loss of ability to properly express their thoughts and understand spoken language. Some patients with this syndrome also experience cramps. There is no clear scientific explanation as to the cause of this disorder. The strangest fact is that children tend to successfully begin to develop language skills, but then gradually lose them. Some speech therapy techniques can help to cope with this disorder, but it is difficult to implement them.

2. Aboulomania

Aboulomania is not a well-known disorder. In essence, it is about pernicious attacks of indecision. Those suffering from this disease are normal people, both physically and mentally in almost any other respect, except when they find themselves in a situation when they have to choose. In these situations they have serious problems. Some people suffering from this disorder face extreme difficulties in their everyday life, they are often unable to do the simpliest things. For example, a simple thought about whether to go for a walk or not can completely knock them out of the rut. Many patients say they feel physically healthy, but imprisoned and deprived of their freedom of action.

3. Mary Hart Syndrome

This is indeed a very strange disorder. There were cases documented of people experiencing seizures when hearing the voice of TV personality Mary Hart. The doctor, who studied one of these cases, confirms that a woman really had a fit when she heard Hart speak. The victim felt her head as if it was squeezed, she was confused and embarrassed. It is worth noting that this strange syndrome occurs only in those who already suffer from seizures from other ailments.

4. Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder

Scientists have long known that caffeine increases anxiety. It is also known that people who are already subject to constant anxiety disorders are much more susceptible to the psychological effects of caffeine. Thus, in case you are prone to panic attacks, be careful with coffee as caffeine increases the likelihood of their occurrence.

5. Boanthropy

Boanthropy is a strange delusional disorder during which a person imagines him- or herself to be a cow or a bull. The disorder usually begins as a sort of dream, and then takes over a person entirely, eventually becoming a mania. It is also possible that this state can be caused by hypnosis, provided that a person is susceptible to it. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, is also thought of suffering from this disease, being “one of the people kind and ate grass like an ox”, as stated in the Book of Daniel.

6. Autophagy

During autophagy, patients eat themselves or parts of their body, by impulsively biting and chewing. One person, for example, began with biting his nails, but eventually gnawed his fingers. As with most disorders, this one can vary from very mild to life-threatening forms.

7. Alien hand syndrome

The syndrome is described when one’s hand behaves as if it has it own mind: it moves, grabs things, responds to touches from other people and acts beyond the control of the person it belongs to.

8. Taijin Kyofusho syndrome

This syndrome is most common in Japan, or more precisely, among the people who grew up in accordance with the social expectations of the Japanese culture. Taijin Kyofusho is characterized by panic fear that communication with others can somehow go wrong. For example, as a fear of smelling bad or that you may accidentally offend someone. The existence of this syndrome in Japan is not surprising, since the Japanese culture is widely known for its love for the observance of the rules of appropriateness and etiquette.

9. Erotomania

Sufferers of erotomania are convinced that someone is in love with them. And a person who is supposedly in love with erotomaniacs usually has a much higher social status than the person suffering from it, and often is a celebrity. Dealing with this disorder is very difficult: even if the alleged lover denies their “feeling”, it is usually not enough to convince the delusional individual otherwise.

10. Riley-Day Syndrome

The Riley-Day syndrome, which is also known as a family dysautonomy is a genetically inherited disorder. For its symptoms to show, it is necessary that the gene was inherited from both parents.

Basically, this syndrome affects the autonomic nervous system. Although there are many unpleasant symptoms, there are also some rather interesting manifestations. The strangest among them is the fact that many sufferers of this syndrome are almost completely insensitive to pain. Existence without pain may sound great in theory, but not so well in practice. The pain is really your friend because it sends signals to the brain to make you know when something goes wrong, and the complete lack of pain does not always lead to pleasant consequences.

Anna LeMind

Anna is the founder and lead editor of the website Learning-mind.com. She is passionate about learning new things and reflecting on thought-provoking ideas. She writes about science, psychology and other related topics. She is particularly interested in topics regarding introversion, consciousness and subconscious, perception, human mind's potential, as well as the nature of reality and the universe.